What is Data?
•Data is a collection of facts, such as
values or measurements.
•It can be numbers, words, measurements,
observations or even just descriptions of
things.
General
•DATA-Numbers or other identifiers
derived from observation, experiment or
calculation
•INFORMATION-a collection of data and
associated explanations, interpretations,
and other material concerning a particular
object, event or process
Classification
•Primary vs Secondary
•Qualitative vs Quantitative
Primary Data
•Data that has been collected from first-
hand-experience is known as primary
data.
•Primary data has not been published yet
and is more reliable, authentic and
objective. Primary data has not been
changed or altered by human beings,
therefore its validity is greater than
secondary data.
Sources of Primary Data
•Experiments
•Survey
–Questionnaire
–Interview
–Observations
Secondary Data
•Data collected from a source that has
already been published in any form is
called as secondary data.
•The review of literature in nay research is
based on secondary data. Mostly from
books, journals and periodicals.
Sources of Secondary Data
•Published Printed Sources:
•Books:
•Journals/periodicals
•Magazines/Newspapers
•e-journals
•General websites
Sources of data
•Sequencing programs
•Molecular studies
•Elucidation of metabolic pathways / Cellular mechanisms
•Cytological studies
•Clinical studies
•Physiological studies
•Mutational experiments
•Data from simulation
Qualitative vs Quantitative
•Data can be qualitative or quantitative.
•Qualitative datais descriptive information (it
describessomething)
•Quantitative data, is numerical information
(numbers).
•
•And Quantitative datacan also be
Discrete or Continuous:
•Discrete datacan only take certain values
(like whole numbers)
•Continuous datacan take any value
(within a range)
Qualitative:
He is brown and black
He has long hair
He has lots of energy
Quantitative:
Discrete:
He has 4 legs
He has 2 brothers
Continuous:
He weighs 25.5 kg
He is 565 mm tall
Discrete datais counted, Continuous datais measured
Types of data
•Morphological
•Sequence
•Structure
General characteristics
•Diversity–are intrinsically complex and are organized
in loose hierarchies that reflect our understanding of the
complex living systems, ranging from gene and proteins,
to protein-protein interactions, biochemical pathways and
regulatory networks, to cells and tissues, organisms and
populations
•Variability-Different individuals and species vary
tremendously, so naturally biological data does also
•Non reproducibility–Representations of
the same data by different biologists will
most likely be different (even when using
the same system)
•Redundancy–Lack of uniqueness
The importance of biological data
•Data has become an essential
commodityfor biological research.
•Ten years ago, if a medical researcher
needed to find a gene involved in a certain
disease, he or she might have needed to
invest 3 yearsof laboratory work.
•Today, thanks to genomic information
stored in large public databases, the same
task may take less than 30 minutes.